The Good, The Bad, and the Band
by Swiftchanted
Summary: Remember that band? Lemonade Mouth? Yeah. They're experiencing issues. Follow the band through the events leading up to Madison Square Garden. Rated T for a reason.
1. Prologue

**So this story…hmm…I will **_**try **_**(notice how I say TRY) to update this story every weekend, but Our Spotlight is my MAIN priority. You guys know that. So don't get too addicted my loves (;**

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1

Prologue

There are lots of things just running around in my head. Like how much debt we're in, this country. Like how global warming's affecting us all. Like how right this minute, people are dying. Then the topic switches over to me. Like how much trouble I'm going to be in once my parents find out. _Yeah, like they'd ever care. _

It's not too fun here. Just sitting here in a tiny room, staring at a white wall. That's the only thing you have in here. Three white walls that have held so many people, and I guess I'm just another one. Just another one, huh…sounds like some depressing love song.

I don't exactly remember how in the world I ended up here. My head's buzzing like crazy, and it's becoming harder and harder to just keep my head up and my eyes open. My wrists are still killing me, they're numb and I can see the little red imprint marks in my skin. There's a lot of commotion; walkie talkies, radio transceivers going off, people walking in and out, rustling file folders and reports. I remember leaving Olivia's…yeah, that's what I was doing, leaving Olivia's…and after that, I don't remember anything except those damned sirens.

If I'm not mistaken, I can hear my mom jabbering on and on around the corner. Saying something about how they've got the wrong person, how they've made a mistake. And I'm pretty sure that's the officer that brought me in assuring her that they got the right girl. And now my mom's screaming at him, telling him that "he's delusional or something, there's no way my daughter's in here!" Oh mom.

My head is pounding like Charlie's bass drum at this point. It feels like everything's just hitting me like stones; hurtling at me fifty miles an hour and leaving these humongous welts on my skin. Everything's blurring. I can make out the sight of my mom turning the corner and gasping, screaming my name and saying some other stuff that I really can't understand at the moment. My ears have seemed to go on mute. The last thing I remember seeing was the officer twirling the keys and leaning up against the metal bars of the holding cell, rustling another damn file folder, _my _damn file folder, before I promptly blacked out.

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><p><strong>This is by far the shortest chapter I've probably ever written, and probably will ever write. I hope this hooked you enough so you'll come back and read it. Be sure to read and review, let me know what you think of this story so far, and I'll try to update this as soon as I can! Keep on determinatin', and I'll see you soon! Love, Emzy<strong>


	2. Tiny Black Straws and Back Pocket Notes

**Nice to see you guys seemed to enjoy the first chapter. My favorite review: **_**Mika Door- Oh no, what did Stella do this time**_**? Hah! I think I died laughing. Just…priceless. Anyways, the chapters in this story may not be as long as the ones I usually write, so bear with me, but eventually they will grow. And with that, I hope you enjoy!**

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2

Tiny Black Straws and Back Pocket Notes

It was official.

Someone was playing with my head. Otherwise I wouldn't be sitting here in this tiny coffee shop in front of the one boy I had feelings for. Curse my stupid, ridiculous thought to agree to meet him after school. I knew I'd make a fool of myself. Just knew it, like the back of my hand.

Awkward silences seemed pretty welcoming at that point; it was so dreadfully quiet that I thought I would eventually drown in the silence. He just sat there, stirring his coffee with the tiny black straw that I never really understood. Ripping the top off a sugar packet, he sprinkled it in his coffee as he looked over at me. I shot a nervous smile at him, and it looked as though he found it amusing. I needed to look cool, in some way, in any way possible to impress him.

My eye caught my own coffee cup, and I realized that this was my one way ticket out of the loser hole I was burying myself in. I crossed my legs, and tried to nonchalantly take a sip of my coffee. Bad idea. The coffee was _scalding _hot. I felt myself sputter, and I tried as hard as I could not to spit the coffee out. My mouth was literally on fire, and I swallowed what would be the last sip of coffee for awhile until that devil cup of coffee cooled down. He raised an eyebrow, and I pasted a fake smile on my face.

"Everything okay?"

"Mm, yeah, just fine."

And there was that silence again. I swear, we've said more to each other during fire drills than we have at the moment. I just wanted to start talking, but it felt like someone had stuffed cotton in my mouth and then duct taped my lips shut. And we both knew I wasn't one for starting conversations. It was just something everyone seemed to know.

He was still fiddling with that ridiculous tiny black straw. It seemed to have more of his attention than I did. Was it because I still wasn't able to find any words to say? _Ugh. _The way the little black straw flicked round and round the cup, swirling the coffee in this mesmerizing way made even me want to just sit there and stare at it for hours. He'd occasionally stop and roll what was poking out of the cup between his thumb and his index finger. That stupid stirring straw, hypnotizing him and me both.

Finally, _finally,_ he opened his mouth and started talking. "So tell me, how's your kitten?" Ah, finally, something I'd be able to talk about without worrying about whether I should just make up an answer to sound a lot more normal, or tell the truth.

"She's a sweetheart, of course." Oh wow, five words to him. It was an improvement though. An accomplishment. On the road to somewhere.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, why would you ask?"

"Oh, no reason really. You just didn't seem in it a minute ago…must've been a figment of imagination or something." Oh no, it's not a figment of your imagination, it's this thing we all call reality. Something that I'm bad at living in.

I'm not one who enjoys living in the real world. I'd prefer to live in books, or poetry, or music. But no, I can't. I get to live in this hellhole we call planet Earth. There are some days I sit in my room, listening to classical music, just reading, absorbing myself in a book. I'll literally have to be shaken out of it. Living in a book is so much easier than in the real world. You can just blend in, no one even noticing you're there, listening in on their lives. It's like legal stalking.

"Oh, sorry about that. I guess I just drifted off somewhere, you know?"

Silence swallowed us whole once again. I began to open my mouth to say something, like I was sorry for not saying anything, the coffee must've burned my vocal cords to almost a crisp, or that the weather was nice outside, but at that moment, both of our phones vibrated in unison. _Well, that wasn't weird at all._ We both exchanged confused looks and picked up our phones to see who the text was from.

**SOS**

**-Stella**

The two of us looked back at each other, worry colored all over our faces. What on earth had Stella possibly gotten into now? Were we protesting something else,-although I really hoped we weren't, last time we tried protesting something, we ended up in a holding cell-something else that was just absurd? Did Stella get us sued or something? I began to type back furiously.

**What's wrong?**

Seconds later, Stella replied back, looking as though she had typed this either blindfolded, with her tongue, or her phone battery had died, because the message was cut off.

**Just get down to Dante's now. We don't have time to wa**

**-Stella**

We both shrugged and stood up. I pushed my chair under and slung my bag over my shoulder as he put two one dollar bills on the table for a tip. I was sort of anxious to find out what was wrong with Stella; there were lots of things wrong with her, but this seemed like new news. We walked out of the coffee shop, the little bell twinkling behind us.

The breeze blowing as the two of us walked down the sidewalk towards the Dante's sign about three blocks down was quite soothing. It sounded as though he was humming one of the songs that they overplayed on the radio, and it took literally everything I had not to just start humming a song of my own.

We reached Dante's, Stella leaning up against the sign looking bored as all get out. Her eyes were closed as she propped her leg up against the edge of the sign. Her arms folded, she was twirling something between her fingers. The two approached Stella, dropping their bags at the edge of the curb. She opened her eyes, and they seemed to light up.

"What's all this about, Stella?"

"You'll see; now where the hell is Charlie and Mo?"

"I don't know, Mo supposedly had homework to finish and it takes Charlie ages to walk from his house to here."

There was more silence, and it sort of ate away at me. Why did I have to be so quiet? It was starting to annoy even me. I mean, I love being a little shy bookworm, but Stella was right; I needed to grow a backbone. Maybe then he'd ask me out! Stella then closed her eyes again, leaning back up against the sign.

After Mo and Charlie arrived, we all just looked at her in annoyance. "Oh right! Why I called you." Stella exclaimed, opening her eyes. She then reached into her back pocket and pulled out a tiny note that had been folded and unfolded many many times by the looks of the worn edges. She unfolded it and cleared her throat as she began to read. "Dear Lemonade Mouth, as we both know, your band has had much success in the past few months not only in the town of Mesa, but all over America as well. We would be honored if you would give a performance in Madison Square Garden on the twenty-eighth of May. Blah blah blah, stuff that I don't really care about reading, if so, please let us know with the number provided below. Thanks."

The look of excitement on our faces was indescribable. "Stella, did you just say we were playing _Madison Square Garden_?" Mo asked. Stella just nodded as she folded the note up once again and shoved it in her back pocket.

"Yes, yes I did, and we have twenty eight days to get ready for it too!" she said. I think the look of surprise on our faces was more dominant at this point. Twenty eight days. We couldn't prepare a Madison Square Garden performance in twenty eight days. It took us a good two months to prepare for Halloween Bash! "But don't worry, we'll be fine."

_We'll be fine. _I'm just sitting here, staring at my ceiling, thinking about how I need to start breaking out of my shell a bit. Thinking about how I should start using my voice. Stella's words keep repeating in my head over and over like a broken record, and I can't help but think that something is bound to go wrong within those twenty eight measly, yet incredibly long days. It's just a sixth sense I have.

_Alright Olivia. Tomorrow, you begin Operation Grow-a-Backbone. Be sure to take notes when Stella jumps on the bleachers with a megaphone tomorrow during school and protests something._

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><p><strong>Well, that was the Olivia point of view chapter! I like playing the sort of vague card. It's fun. What do you think is gonna happen? And god knows what dear Sista Stella plans on protesting next…anyways, I hope that this chapter sort of enlightened you. I had fun writing it. Next chapter…don't know when it will be out, so for now, just enjoy these two chapters! Keep on determinatin'. It's the new shufflin'. Love, Emzy<strong>


	3. Are You in or What?

**Well hello everyone! This would be chapter three of The Good, The Bad, and the Band. I hope you enjoy this; and I just wanted to thank you all for your feedback! It means so much to me, like really, it does. Your reviews just make me smile like a maniac. Real talk. And with that…here's chapter three!**

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3

Are You In or What?

I knew that Stella was going to ultimately kill me for this.

So even though Scott had been sort of furloughed into the band, I knew Stella, who was the usual ringleader of the band and usually finalized decisions seeing as how she knew what was best for us, would have my head brought to her on a silver platter for asking Scott if he was going to play Madison Square with us. She wasn't exactly all buddy buddy with Scott, but she didn't hate his guts either. But I'm sure she wouldn't want me asking him this without her consult. Hopefully Stella won't blow up in my face.

Stella's been quite…_moody_ the past few weeks. At first we thought it was just her on her period or something, but when it carried on over into two, going on three weeks, we knew that her incredibly ill temper wasn't because of Mother Nature. Then we went to the assumption that her and Ray had gotten into a major throw down and that she was still fuming over it, but when we went to Ray, we discovered that the two of them haven't talked in almost a month.

We still really haven't found out why Stella's been so pissed lately-she tried telling us that it was just a phase she was going through, being angry with the world every second of the day, but that's an obvious lie right there-and hopefully she'll come around _before _I let her know that I told Scott about Madison Square Garden.

Scott and I were currently just sitting on a bench outside of school. The day was over, and we were just sitting there waiting for Stella to get out of Brennigan's office. (She had stood up during an assembly today and complained about how the school was somehow able to afford to buy a new scoreboard for the gym, but couldn't do anything about the leakage in the basement.) The others-Wen, Charlie, and Olivia- had already left for Dante's for our annual after-school 'band meeting' and I, being the good friend to Stella, had offered to give her a ride over.

Scott was playing with my hand, my head resting on his shoulder as the brand new May breeze blew by. We had a total of twenty seven days until the Madison Square Garden performance. _God, just ask him already! There isn't any time to waste, every second counts, and you know that. So what if Stella gets mad? She can get over herself. Just ask him, it's not gonna hurt to try!_

"So…Scott, can I ask you something?" Oh yes, that approach was just so incredibly smooth. Not only did I sound completely ridiculous, but I probably looked it too. Of course, he'd probably use the same corny line all guys do, saying, _oh no honey, you look beautiful!_ Yeah, because we haven't heard that one before.

"Yeah, sure, of course."

I was going to do the Wen thing. Ease him into the idea. Unlike the Stella approach to things, which meant throwing it at them like a brick. My normal attempt at situations like this would to just blurt it out at the most inopportune time. But as Stella would say, time to take a walk on the Wen side of life.

"You know how you sort of came and played with us during Rising Star?" Scott nodded at this. "Did you, like, quit Mudslide Crush?"

"I guess, yeah. Just got tired of Ray always taking charge and pushing me around like his servant. We're always gonna be friends, but being band mates isn't going to work out and I found out a little too late."

I just sat there, not moving. "So, if Lemonade Mouth ever needed or wanted you to play with them, you'd say…"

"Well, I'd say yes, if you guys were okay with it."

"So you're saying that you're basically in the band."

"Well you told me just now that I was."

"Alright then…"

"What's up Mo? Something's got your tongue."

"Well you see Lemonade Mouth's playing Madison Square Garden and I really want you to play with us but if you don't want to you don't have to I just thought it'd be fun and I know Stella's gonna kill me for asking but I figured since you're my boyfriend I should be able to ask you and-" I rambled on and on, the words coming out of my mouth like a waterfall.

So much for playing the Wen card.

Scott chuckled. "Mo, please, take a breath for me." I sighed and took a deep breath. He smiled at me and rested a hand on my shoulder reassuringly. "Now start from the beginning, slowly please."

"Okay, well we got invited to play Madison Square Garden-"

"Really? That's amazing, love."

"And I wanted to know if you'd play with us in the show."

Scott was silent for a moment. I was a little terrified that I had broken him- no, a little terrified was a bit of an understatement. I was horrified. He was just frozen, like someone had snapped their fingers and stopped the world around me. It was just that incredibly silent. I waved my hand in front of Scott's expressionless and frozen face, trying to see if there was any light on. "Scott. Scott. Hello?"

He finally awoke from whatever trance he'd been in, and shook his head. "Wh-what, Mo did you just ask me to play Madison Square Garden with Lemonade Mouth?" I just nodded. I felt like a giant boulder had been lifted off my shoulders. Even though I knew I was just awaiting the sting of the giant band-aid that was telling Stella that I had invited Scott to play with us to be ripped off, I felt like I could breathe once again. He just looked at me, eyes wide, a hand resting on my thigh. I nodded, opening my mouth, letting out five words I couldn't take back once they were out there.

"Are you in or what?"

Stella was going to kill me.

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><p><strong>Well, that's the Mo chapter! Quick news update…who all's heard Demi's new album? :O OHMIGOD. Talk about an amazing album! GO BUY IT GO BUY IT GO BUY IT. Best money you'll ever spend. I'm actually thinking about incorporating a couple of her songs in either oneshots or upcoming chaptersstories. Let me know. Or, if you want a giant collection of oneshots from the whole album! Just whatever you wanna see ;) Hopefully I'll have either a new oneshot or new chapter of Our Spotlight out tomorrow night! Anyways, until next chapter my loves! Love, Emzy**


	4. The Things that Kill Us Slowly

**Yikes! It's been forever since you've seen this story, huh? Sorry, just focused on Our Spotlight a bit more! This story, as you know, isn't my first priority, but I had a really good idea for this chapter and I had to write it! So much love, and enjoy!**

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4

The Things That Kill Us Slowly

Practice was the biggest disaster I've ever experienced in my entire life. And it all began with Stella showing up late.

If you knew Stella, you'd know that the girl didn't show up late, especially for band practice. This band was like her child, she didn't show up late. She'd have to be dead before the girl showed up late. It was just Stella and her crazy antics.

So we're all standing there, not knowing what to do. It was the most awkward situation I've ever experienced. What was apparently a minute and a half felt as though it was a decade and a half. Time was not passing.

Stella then walked in, looking as though she'd been thrown in a washer and then thrown in a dryer. We all exchanged looks as Stella stumbled over to us, picking up her guitar. "Sorry kids, I was busy doing stuff," she slurred. It was pretty evident that Stella was drunker than drunk. Mo stepped up a bit closer to her, and sniffed the air around Stella.

"Stella have you been drinking?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Eh, just a couple of sips of Mike's."

"Stella Yamada!" Mo screeched. Stella shrugged.

"Mo, relax, I'm not even that drunk."

"Then explain why you're swaying as though you're on a boat in the ocean."

"Maybe I'm rehearsing a new dance move! You don't know what I'm doing, _Mohini_." Stella sneered, her speech still slurred. Mo's eyes widened. You didn't call Mo Mohini. That was the way things went. Her family called her Mo. We didn't. Stella was obviously so drunk that she didn't know what she was doing. I grabbed Mo's arm and drug her back over to her bass.

"She's drunk; she doesn't know what she's saying."

"I don't care; she's treading on dangerous ground and she knows it." Mo said through clenched teeth.

Olivia looked at Wen nervously, and Wen began to hastily play the opening to Determinate. We all sort of calmed down, but Mo still seemed pretty irked about the Mohini thing, and Stella was still drunk. The rest of us were trying to ignore the incredibly heavy tension, but it was near impossible. We went through Determinate, Here We Go (with Stella slurring all of her lyrics, and it sounded a hot mess) and we got through about half of Somebody before Mo sighed and threw her hands up.

"Okay, Stella, you're off key! Would you mind fixing it?" she all-but-yelled, running her hands through her hair. Stella scowled.

"Has it ever occurred to you that you guys may just be off key? Geez, just because I had a couple of sips of alcohol automatically makes me the bad guy in every situation!" Stella said, her eyes fluttering. It was only a matter of time before she passed out.

Mo rolled her eyes. "Stella, why don't you just sit down and let Scott play for you until you sober up some? I mean, he is playing the Garden with us."

That was the breaking point for Stella. "YOU INVITED THAT BASTARD TO PLAY MADISON SQUARE GARDEN WITH US? HOW COULD YOU MO? WHEN DID YOU PLAN ON TELLING US, THE DAY OF?" Mo winced; she knew she'd messed up big time.

Stella promptly then put her guitar away and began to storm off. But she didn't make it too far, because she then passed out. Olivia sighed, looking over at Wen for some sort of reassurance. If anyone was stressing the most over this, it was the two of them; they had to write every song for the show. Stressful was probably an understatement.

Mo just looked at me, and I shrugged. "I'll drive her home. It won't kill me." She nodded, shooting me a grateful smile. I knew the last thing she wanted to do was drive Stella home, even if she was the closest to Stella's house, because Stella had caused her enough grief for the day.

We then ended band practice, me carrying a happily unconscious Stella to my car. I placed her in the backseat, strapped a belt over her waist so she wouldn't roll out in the floor and get a concussion because I slammed on breaks (I had the worst tendency to try and run yellow lights, but ninety seven percent of the time I'm forced to slam on the breaks because I don't want to get arrested) and she fell. Because she'd have my head for it and I knew it.

I finally reached her house, and having experience from when I had to bring her pizza from Dante's when she was on house arrest for a month for nearly burning down the kitchen on purpose when her mother asked her to watch the steaks, and Stella being her vegetarian extremist self, refused to and let them burn, I walked out to the back. Carrying Stella, who was a hell of a lot lighter than she looked, I looked up at Stella's balcony. I was carrying a human this time, not a pizza. So I held on tight to Stella and carried her up the oak tree and jumped onto the balcony. Grabbing the key to her room, I opened the humongous doors and walked into her room. I sat her down on the bed, pulled the blanket over her, and to get the smell of Mike's Hard Lemonade and Budlight off of her, I grabbed a bottle of perfume and sprayed it all over her.

Suddenly, her phone vibrated, and I picked it up. It asked for a password, and I rolled my eyes as I typed in lemonade. Her phone unlocked, and I saw a text from her commonly known enemy, Ray the Bitch Beech.

_I'm only doing this for you._

Doing what for her? What the hell was going on? But before I could snoop any farther, my own phone rang and I answered it, walking out of Stella's room and climbing back down the oak tree. "Hello?"

"You on your way home?"

"Yeah, just dropping off Stella, why, are Mom and Dad fighting again?"

"Yup, this time it's about my grades."

"Mom on your side?"

"You bet your drumsticks."

"I'm on my way, see you in five."

Hanging up the phone, I sighed. Things in my house were almost as bad as they were becoming in the band. I guess the whole Delgado-bad-luck-streak is continuing on. Can't get Mo, can't get my parents to accept I want to be in a band and not play soccer, can't get everyone in that band to stop fighting, can't get said parents to quit arguing about every little thing, and more specifically, Charlie Delgado can't ever seem to catch a break.

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><p><strong>Ha! Who knew that this would be Charlie's chapter? In all honesty, I thought I was gonna end up making this Scott's chapter, but oh well. Hope it stayed vague enough! The vague card's a fun one to play! Anywho, I have a friend over tomorrow (Sierra, she's the Naomi to my Hayley, the Mo to my Stella. xD) and Our Spotlight will be pushed back to Saturday! But I have another three day weekend rapidly approaching ;) I love you guys, and so sorry for not updating this more often! I'll do my best! So leave your reviews, make me a happy happy girl. What do you think Ray's doing for Stella? Do you think Wen &amp; Olivia are gonna crack under the pressure to write all those songs? What do you think is gonna happen next? Let me know ;) Be you! Love, Emzy <strong>


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